


Maybe, Just Maybe

by Paigers



Category: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Genre: Canon Compliant, Future Fic, Getting Back Together, HAPPY ENDING TRUST, Happy Ending, M/M, No Angst, Simon's Mom POV, but I dwell on the details as little as possible cuz I'm not about that angst life, so technically there was a breakup at some point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 12:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10967364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paigers/pseuds/Paigers
Summary: More than 10 years after the book, Emily Spier (mom to Simon et al.) runs into her son's ex-boyfriend, Bram Greenfeld, at a Walgreens.Yet again, she finds out that her children are not telling her things.Happy ending, promise.





	Maybe, Just Maybe

**Author's Note:**

> I totally was not sure I wanted to post this, because why, oh why would I let any hint of discord interrupt our precious Simonverse? But I ended up liking it so much, that eh, here it is. No angst.
> 
> Also, I'm using the names that the movie is apparently giving Simon's parents, because why not?

March 2028

 _Do u need anything? I’m picking Alice up some stuff,_ she texted Simon.

 _Thanks, I’m good,_ he responded. No surprise. He had seemed extra withdrawn lately. Who knew?

 _Well, at least one of my children still needs me sometimes,_ Emily Spier thought to herself, as she pulled into the drug store parking lot.

Well, ok, Alice didn’t need her. She could be asking one of her friends, or her sister-in-law or mother-in-law for help. They were both lovely people, and they both lived nearby. But Alice had asked her. And the part of her that would always be a mom first had rejoiced.

Her oldest daughter had found herself in a situation that Emily had never been in or wanted her children to be in. She was eight months pregnant, with a (lovely, honorable) husband deployed overseas. Emily did not resent Zach for it, exactly. In nearly all ways, he was a model husband. He had a good job, excellent health insurance, and he loved Alice as much as any mom could want a man to love her child. And if not for him, well, Alice probably would not even live in Georgia, much less be waiting for her right now at the home she had grown up in. Everyone had been surprised when Alice had married Zach last year. Alice, who had left Georgia the moment she could, Alice who had dated nothing but boys from California and New York who wore hipster glasses, Alice who had helped organize the Women’s March at her school and volunteered at abortion clinics. That Alice. Had married Zach, a Navy SEAL who had grown up twenty miles from her, who she had met at the Atlanta airport on her way back home to her then-job in Boston two years ago. If not for Zach, chances were Alice would not be living in Shady Creek, three miles from her parents. (Still Alice Spier, though). The flip side was, though, that while Alice had remarkably come home, her homebody Nora was now up East. Funny how things worked out that way.

She was glad she had Alice. But. But. Alice was about to have a baby, and her husband was thousands of miles away,

Not, of course, that Alice needed him either. She also had a good job with excellent health insurance, and parents and a brother who all lived within a thirty-mile radius. But still, there was a look in her eyes sometimes. She was doing most of it without him, the shopping, the doctors’ visits, the baby shower, everything. It was probably a bit terrifying.

 _His loss, my gain,_ Emily thought, and then hated herself for it. But it was true. Without Zach there, she had become her daughter’s partner in all things baby. And it was amazing (though Jesus, that “Grandma” word was still daunting). It was why Alice was waiting for her at the Spier home, where she was spending more and more of her time as her due date got closer, and it became more real. It was why Emily, not Zach, was the one who had gone, not one, not two, but three drug stores out of her way to pick up the very specific over-the-counter safe-for-pregnant-ladies pills Alice wanted on this chilly Saturday afternoon.

And it was why she ran into him.

She had just spotted the brand Alice wanted (probably the exact same stuff as the more common brands, but pregnant women get what they want) and put it in her basket when she saw him out of the corner of her eye. He was crouching down at the opposite end of the aisle and seemed to be looking for a specific brand himself. She couldn’t believe her eyes for a moment. Last she knew, he lived in Philadelphia. Plus, he had not seen him in years, so she couldn’t be sure it was really him. He was wearing jeans and…a red sweater, with a collared shirt underneath. Who else could it possibly be?

“Bram?”

He looked up, saw her, then stood up (knocking over a couple boxes), looking startled. Yep. Bram Greenfeld. “Oh wow,” he said, and took a few small awkward steps toward her “Hi, Mrs. Spier, how are you?”

She was not quite so hesitant. She walked right up to him, and pulled him into her arms. His hug was warm and real and not-at-all awkward, even if is greeting had been. He let her squeeze the life out of him for a good ten seconds, before pulling away. 

“Oh my goodness, honey. Or Professor Greenfeld, should I say?” she said. “I can’t believe this, how long has it been? I had no idea you were around.”

“Um, quite a while, I guess” he said, his eyes still a bit wide. He was fidgeting, and his eyes kept darting around, which struck her as odd. “I’m just visiting right now.”

“Oh, I bet your mom is just thrilled to have you back for a minute.”

“Er, yeah...”

“And your dad and your sister! Have you seen them? Or are you going to?”

“Oh, um, yeah. I was in Savannah first, actually. I flew up here last night. I don’t have a car with me, obviously, so…”

Why was he acting so cagey and (nearly) monosyllabic? Yeah, ex-boyfriend’s mom and all. Some inherent awkwardness there. But it was not as though he and Simon had some bitter, drawn-out breakup or anything. It had been more logistical than anything, about location and practicality. Which is not to say it had been easy – she had never known her normally-cheery son to be so devastated by anything, before or since. And she did not doubt that it had been the same for Bram. But it had been so long ago, and she knew they talked occasionally, and emailed even more. Simon had even forwarded her an obscure local newspaper article last year that Bram had sent him, which had mentioned Simon by name. It had been a feature about the work done by the Gay-Straight Alliance club that Simon advised, at the high school where he taught drama and was beloved. It had made her cry, seeing him recognized in such a way. 

(The subject line had been “You’re still my hero, Jacques,” which had confused her. Simon had had to explain, the next time they saw each other).

“What, do you think he has a Google alert for your name?” she had asked Simon during that same conversation. 

“I’m sure he just pays attention to Atlanta news, Mom,” he said. But he had blushed and cocked his head a bit, looking pensive.

Anyway, from everything she had every gathered, they still called each other friends, though friends from a safe distance. So why, right now, was Bram still not looking her in the eye?

“I just can’t believe how handsome you’ve gotten,” she continued, as he did not seem inclined to add to the conversation. “Not that you haven’t always been handsome, of course.”

He went a little bit red, but it was the truth. He was perhaps even taller than when she had last seen him (though that may be due to faulty memory), 6’1” or so, she guessed. His face seemed a bit more angular somehow, his features more mature. His eyes (and those eyelashes!) stood out more than they ever had. There was even a crease or two that seemed to be developing in his forehead. He truly was a grown, 30-year-old man, now, she realized with some silly level of shock. But then, so was Simon, somehow.

He laughed awkwardly. “You sound like my mom,” he said. “And my step-mom. Every time they see me, they act like I’ve turned into some other species.” That was more like it.

“Well, it’s because you live so far away, hun. You probably do seem like a different species every time you – “

“Did you find it, babe?” a familiar voice interrupted.

A blonde, shorter man had just turned the corner and walked up to Bram’s side and touched his arm. A man who also now had wrinkles coming in, but wrinkles that she was more used to seeing. She gaped at him in disbelief, utterly confused.

“Yeah,” Bram said to him. “I found it. But I also found…” he gestured to her.

Simon looked up at her, apparently not having noticed her. His eyes bugged.

“Mom! What are you…why are you all the way out here?”

“I…Alice wanted some really specific, wait, wait,” she said, some composure coming back to her. “What are you doing her? What…” she flapped her hand between them.

“We, I, needed some ibuprofen,” Simon said. “Um.”

“We?. Oh my god,” she said. “Are you two...” Bram had stepped back a bit, and was shuffling back and forth on his feet, looking the other way.

“Mom,” Simon said, getting red. “This is…look, I’ll call you later, ok? We, we, gotta go.”

“Go somewhere together? Hold on, Simon, you haven’t mentioned anything about…”

“Mom. I’ll call you later.” He was no longer red, and the look in his eye was almost stern.

And it was one of those moments where Emily Spier had to remember that her children were adults. And that they were not obligated to tell her every bit of their business, every second of the day. But something like this? Like Bram? She felt so caught off guard. 

“I love you. I’ll call you” Simon said quickly, realizing that he had gotten through to her for a moment. He hugged her quickly and turned around. “Let’s go.”

“Ok,” Bram said. He looked up at her again. “Bye, Mrs. Spier. It was really nice to see you again.”

“Emily, I think, hun.”

“Um. Ok. Bye…Emily,” he said, and he winced at the sound of it coming out of his mouth. He gave an awkward little wave, and he and Simon walked in the other direction, standing close together.

What. In. The. World.

 

 

She barely registered her drive home. She was too focused on thinking about what she had just witnessed. Simon had been with Bram Greenfeld. He had been with Bram, and they had been shopping together, and he had called him “babe.”

How many things could that possibly mean?

Alice was laying on the couch, when she walked in, watching reality show reruns on the DVR. She and Jack saved them for her because she did not want to pay for cable at her house. (Though Emily knew she would give in, eventually.)

“Oh, you’ll never guess what just happened,” she said, as she took the pill box from Emily. “Lisa just old Kevin that – “

“Guess who I just saw at Walgreens,” she interrupted her.

“Who?”

“Your brother. And he was with Bram. _Greenfeld. That_ Bram Greenfeld.”

“Oh,” Alice said. “Oh, wow, that’s…” She trailed off. She did not look shocked.

“Do you know something about this?”

“Not really, “Alice said quickly. “I definitely didn’t know Bram was in Atlanta right now. Woah. I thought he wasn’t supposed to actually move til at least this summer…Maybe he’s just scoping out real estate or something.”

“Move? Here?”

“Yeah,” Alice’s brows furrowed. “You didn’t see it on Facebook? He got a tenure-track job at Emory. He’s starting in the fall semester, I think.”

“We’re not friends on Facebook,” Emily said.

“You’re not?” 

“Well, I mean, I wanted to friend him after they broke up, so I could keep up with how he was doing and everything. But I didn’t think Simon would like it.”

“Look at you, Emily Spier,” Alice looked almost impressed. “That’s growth right there.”

“Shut up. Emory, that’s amazing. Bram’s really moving back?”

“Yeah, I guess his fellowship at Penn is finishing up this spring, and then, yeah, he’s coming home. _I,_ for one, never stopped Facebook stalking him.” She says it with pride, the hypocrite.

“And he and Simon are…”

“That, I don’t know, Mom,” Alice stopped her. “I mean, I thought, maybe…Nora said…”

“Said what?”

“Well, ok, since you saw them together anyway. Nora said that when Simon went to see her in New York in January, that he went down to Philly for the day and then didn’t come down the until the next afternoon. She said he was really cagey about it. And when she asked him if she saw Bram, he said yeah, he did, but kinda wouldn’t say anything else. She thought something might be going on because he seemed really, like, bubbly, but, you know Nora. She didn’t want to pry too much.”

“And he never said anything?” Emily asked.

“Well, I kinda tried to bring it up with him, but he was just as evasive as Nora said. So I was just like, ok, little brother, it’s your life. But then, lately he’s seemed sort of…distant? Like, we haven’t been talking, but every time we do, he seems really happy. Like, really happy. So, yeah, those things and the fact that Bram is moving, back, you know, I definitely thought…maybe something was going on there. But I didn’t want to say anything because he wasn’t saying anything, and it seemed deliberate.”

Emily had also noticed that Simon hand had not been around as much. Even his Facebook presence had been lackluster. But she knew that he was busy with his school’s newest play. And he lived and worked in Atlanta-proper, so getting back and forth could be a pain. But Alice was about to have a baby for God’s sake, and he was nearly MIA, so it had occurred to her that there might be a new guy on the scene as well.

This, though. This had not occurred to her. Bram. Bram. 

“He’s acting like he’s a teenager again, with the secrets,” she said to Alice.

“I…would half agree with that,” Alice said. “But I would say he’s acting like he’s a teenager again and trying to date Bram Greenfeld.”

“I wish he would have said something, though.”

“Yeah, Mom, I get that. It’s just…you get why he wouldn’t, right? I mean they’re grown-ass men now. It’s gotta be different. Whatever’s going on, it’s probably new, and I think they’re just trying to see if it can work.”

“I suppose. They seemed cozy enough at the store though. Simon called him ‘babe,’” Emily said, smiling widely.

“Aww. But I don’t know if I would assume anything just from that, though. It’s not like they would just pretend they were never in a relationship before. I’m sure some old habits came back real quick.”

“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “That would make sense. God, I hope it works though. That would be wonderful.”

“Well, duh, you think that. Bram is totally your favorite of Simon’s boyfriends, Mom.”

“I have liked all of Simon’s boyfriends,” she said quickly.

“Except Derek.”

“Derek was – “

“A dick.”

“Alice, he was – “

“Mom.”

“Ok, no, I’m glad he’s gone.”

“Yeah, me too. And trust me, I’m rooting for this too, now that I know I was right. Bram was totally my favorite, no contest.”

“Well,” Emily said. “With Bram, I just. He was so nice and sweet, and he loved Simon, you know? He really did. He adored him, exactly the way he was. And Simon loved him. And I liked who Simon was around him. Not that I didn’t like him before, obviously,” she laughed. “He was so smart and motivated, and it seemed like he made Simon motivated too, you know. Not that he wasn’t motivated before, I mean, but…”

“No, I get what you’re saying,” Alice said.

“And,” Emily continued, rubbing Alice’s belly. “You’ll understand this soon. But, when you’re a parent, you just want to protect your kid from all harm, you know? But you can’t do that. You just can’t, and it gets worse the older they get. The only thing you can do is hope to God that the people they choose to be around won’t hurt them or use them or something. And with Bram, I never felt like I had to worry about that. Not for a minute. It’s hard to describe how...satisfying that is, as a mom. To know that.”

And, ok, yes, Alice was right. Bram had definitely been her favorite. Despite the awkwardness of their meeting earlier, she had felt a bone-deep warmth at seeing him again. And that was before Simon had walked up. Now…

Well. They would see, wouldn’t they?

 

 

Simon did not call her. Predictable.

So she called him, but she waited 48 hours, until Monday, which she felt she almost deserved a medal for.

“Hey,” he answered the phone, his casualness forced.

“Hi honey,” she said. “How was work?”

“Good,” he said. “Real good. Long. You?

“Same,” she said. “So.

“So.”

“You and Bram are…seeing each other?”

“Yeah,” he said after a pause. “Yeah, we are.”

“How long?”

“Um, a few weeks, I guess. It’s, he still in Philly for now. He went home yesterday, so it’s long distance-ish right now.”

“Do you mind me asking…how? I mean, it’s so great. So great. But I’m surprised.”

“So am I. Kind of. I don’t know. You…do you remember that article I forwarded you last year? The one about – “

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, I guess, ever since then, we’ve been in communication. A lot. I mean, it’s not that we weren’t before, it’s just that it wasn’t that often. And it became every other week, then, like, every other day. Mostly just emailing and stuff. But when I went and saw Nora a couple months ago, I went down and met him one night for dinner. And we got to talking, and we had such a great time, and then he told me that one of the job offers he had gotten was from Emory. And he was pretty sure he wanted to take it, and he wanted to know what I thought about that.”

“Woah.” 

“Yeah, that was my reaction too. It was so out of the blue, you know?”

“What did you tell him?” she asked

“I told him that it would be really awesome to see him more, but that he should do whatever was best for his career,” Simon said. “I didn’t wanna, you know, get in the way of – “

“Yeah. But you were happy.”

“I was…I thought maybe, we’re both single, it would be such great timing. And I don’t think I’m the reason he’s coming back, I mean, he never gets to see his sister or any of his family, really and I think that really bugs him. But I don’t think I have nothing to do with it either. When I went back to Nora’s after that, I just…it made so much sense, you know?”

(He did not mention that he did not go back until the following day, according to Alice. She supposed there had to be a limit somewhere.)

“I’m sure.”

“Yeah, and ever since them, we’ve been…feeling it out? You know? Trying? He’s been here a couple times, and I went up there a few weekends ago. I’m going again in May.”

She hadn’t known that, and it bothered her, but she didn’t say anything. She couldn’t believe he was even telling her this much. Maybe Alice had talked him into, it.

“I’m really happy for you, Simon.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Sorry you had to find out like that. It’s just…I don’t want to fuck this up, you know? He’s so fucking amazing, still. Still. I want to give it a real try, and I feel like if we start making it super public, or doing the Facebook thing, it might be too fast. We need to figure it out ourselves.”

“I hope it works out, honey,” she said.

“Me too,” he said. She could tell he was smiling.

 

 

Being in a church would never be an entirely comfortable experience for her. She respected religious people and their faith, but that was as far as it went. But Zach’s family was religious, and a Christening (Baptism?) was important to them. And Zach was on leave, so, overall it was going to be a more happy occasion than not. Simon and Zach’s sister were the godparents. 

She and Jack had just sat in the pew (was that the right word?) when she saw them walk in. Simon. With Bram. Simon and Bram, together, in public, officially. Well.

They went to greet the Mommy and Daddy and Baby Lucy first. Bram shook Zach’s hand, and Alice gave him a long hug, whispering something into his ear that made him smile. Simon stayed with them and the minister (if that was the correct term for him), but Bram walked deliberately up to her and Jack.

“Hello,” he said, with that small smile of his.

“Well, look who it is,” Jack said, getting up and shaking his hand too. “I heard that I might be seeing you again soon.”

“You heard right,” Bram said, then turned to her. He put his arms around her, and hugged her again, just as tightly as last time. “Sorry it was a bit weird las time we saw each other. We were just…”

“Oh, God, don’t apologize. I just had no idea. Congrats on that job, by the way. That’s fantastic.”

“Thanks. I’m…really excited.”

“And,” she hesitantly continued. “I’m so happy that you’re moving back, Bram.”

“So am I,” he said, and his smile widened.

The service (right?) was lovely, and it made her cry just a bit. Afterwards, a lot of them went back to the Spier home for lunch. Simon and Bram sat close together, legs a bit intertwined, smiling quite a bit. They seemed content. It made her content, too.

She reflexively checked Facebook before she got in bed that night. The first thing she saw on her timeline was _Simon Spier is in a relationship with Bram Greenfeld._ Simon had commented on the post with “…again,” which had gotten a ridiculous number of likes.

Well.

She sent Bram a friend request, because it was about damn time.

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm on Tumblr sometimes](http://paigey-waigey.tumblr.com/)


End file.
